Chapter 16: Raiden

Before doing Raiden's chapter, I vehemently suggest you exit out and play with him a bit in Arcade Ladder or another mode so you get very comfortable with his attacks. If he's your favorite character or something, you probably won't need to, but the less comfortable you are with him in general, the more you really need to work with him for awhile before attempting this. Trust me: Raiden's chapter gets pretty sticky with the second fight, and you'll have to know how to use him.

Moves List

Lightning

↓ ← [1]

Electrocute

↓ → [2]

Electric Fly

← → [3]

Teleport

↓ ↑

Vicinity Blast

↓ ← [2]

Fight 63: Scorpion

Scorpion isn't too tough, and by now, you're probably good enough with the game in general to take him out without any complicated strategy. Be wary of Scorpion's teleports, and if you're ever knocked down, immediately use the Electric Fly attack the moment you're up. In fact, if you time it perfectly, you should be hitting ← just beforeRaiden stands up, so he hits the attack the instant he can. Scorpion usually comes off his guard if he knocks you down, so doing an Electric Fly the instant you stand should put him down.

Fight 64: Jax, Stryker, & Kabal

Here comes a tough one. Raiden has to fight the protagonists, one after another, in sets of three. Each fight is only a single round regardless of settings, and you do not heal between rounds. If you lose, you start the gauntlet over. About the only positive here is that the fighters don't fight to optimal effectiveness, and will go down with specific, simple tactics. Be sure to use your X-Ray attacks immediately when you charge them, because the meter resets between fights.

First up is Jax, who prefers hitting you on the ground attacks. The logical counter is to stay airborne, but the problem is that Jax likes to grab you out of the air and throw you. Stay about at jump distance, and use → [4] to send Jax hurt and flying across the screen. He'll usually try to jump-in as he gets up, so you can counter with an uppercut. Like with Scorpion, if you get knocked down, immediately do the Electric Fly attack as you get up. Otherwise, do not use that attack: Jax is block-happy and will beat the crap out of you if he stops you in-flight. Instead, if Jax is standing, stay airborne and hit him with jump-ins, and close the distance whenever you're apart because you do not want him pounding the ground. Raiden's teleport is good for that.

Second up is Stryker, who is more aggressive and a bit faster. He's a little more unpredictable, and will start breaking your blocks if you turtle up. Try to stay below him at all times unless he goes down: if he jumps, uppercut him, then follow up with a jump-in of your own. Keep moving, but try to move away from him about 75% of the time. This will force him to follow you, and you can usually uppercut him out of the air again. If the fight goes to the ground, block low, but be ready to teleport or otherwise create distance if he gets in your face.

Third up is Kabal, who is actually remarkably easy. Stay low and just block. Kabal will usually act confused, step back and forth a few times, then approach you. Unless you're unlucky, he'll basically just stand there, allowing you to uppercut him away. Just as he gets up, throw an Electric Fly: he rarely blocks it. Even if he does, he more rarely will counter, and instead allow you to safely land, where you can immediately throw another uppercut. In short, you can basically uppercut Kabal to death, so long as you don't get overly aggressive. The more you block here, the higher the chance that he'll make a mistake and leave himself open.

Fight 65: Kitana, Nightwolf, & Kung Lao

The gauntlet restarts, starting with Kitana. Same rules apply here, but at least you healed prior to this one. Kitana herself is almost remarkably pathetic. Stay above her, jump-in with [2], follow up with a combo or uppercut, and immediately throw an Electric Fly as she gets up. Like with Jax, don't do an Electric Fly if she's not getting up, because if she blocks it, she'll combo a large chunk of your health away.

Second up is Nightwolf. Fight him like you did Kabal: stay low and block, and wait for him to make a mistake. Trying to cross him up usually results in him doing his sweeping tomahawk attack that will knock you out of the air, and he'll usually air juggle you a bit too. Just crouch and block, wait for him to walk up, and uppercut him. The instant he gets up, do an Electric Fly. If you hit him, jump-out, duck and block, and repeat. If you don't hit him with the Electric Fly, just duck and block where you are. Just be wary of his X-Ray attack, and you should be okay.

Fight 66: Liu Kang

Given what you had to deal with to get here, Liu Kang is actually pretty easy. He's a little aggressive, so you can uppercut him out of the air when he tries jump-ins. Similarly to Kung Lao, don't get in his face: Liu Kang can and will combo you out of nowhere, and the more aggressive you are, the higher the chance he'll be able to turn it around and hit you harder. Don't attempt an Electric Fly as Liu Kang gets up; instead, wait for Liu Kang to over-commit to a jump-in from too great a distance, and do an Electric Fly as he's landing. That way, you'll be sure to connect because he won't have time to throw up a block.

Fight 67: Shao Kahn

Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more; or close the wall up with our Earthrealm dead. Shao Kahn is back, and he's pissed.

Despite the storyline issues surrounding this fight, Shao Kahn not only has no additional abilities, but he's actually no stronger than the last time you fought him at Liu Kang. About the only difference is that he's a bit more aggressive and taunts a little less often. He's still a cheap jerk, so we're just going to out-cheap him.

First, a disclaimer: our way is not the only way to beat him. If you're good with Raiden, then you can use whatever combos or attacks that work for you. There are also other strategies online, and hey, if it works, by all means use it. But considering my personal skill level of fighting games, where I need simple spam combos to get much accomplished, this will work for you. And we've got video evidence!

All right, this comes down to only a few moves, and your own reaction time. The attack you need to worry about is Raiden's Spinning Kick, which is a very simple → [3]. If you can pull off Teleports and Electric Flies at will, even better. Finally, under certain circumstances, you'll need a jump-in [2] followed by an uppercut. Those few moves should be all you need.

Okay, here's the thing with Shao Kahn: his attack animations ludicrously long. When he commits to an attack, he really commits to it. So, you simply need to do standing blocks, wait for him to commit, then react accordingly. You need fast reflexes to be able to react to whatever you see, because you'll only have a split-second to pull it off. Here's the basic way to do counter whatever he throws at you...

The basic idea is, immediately after blocking any attack, you do a spinning kick, with the following exceptions...

If he does a forward charge, do nothing. He'll almost always be outside range for your spinning kick, and stepping forward will just open you up. Ergo, just stand still and keep blocking.

If he readies to throw his hammer, do the jump-in [2] uppercut combo.

If he readies his hammer above his shoulder to sweep you, either do the jump-in [2] uppercut combo, or jump-out to avoid it entirely.

If he jumps-in, he's doing his X-Ray attack. Jump forward, or else he'll hit you with it even if you're blocking.

If he does an upward charge, you can either do a spinning kick or, if you're very fast, an Electric Fly. Even if it looks like he'll jump over you, you'll still hit him; he's got a pretty large hit box for some reason.

...That's it.

It took me a bit to get my rhythm, about to 0:17 in the video. The first round went well, as did the second, until I lost my mind. That's the absolutely worst possible thing you can do: to do some other tactic other than what has been working. Take a look at the video at 1:24: I have Shao Kahn on the ropes, and I start getting overly aggressive, which is what he was hoping for. As a result, I broke my concentration, and he broke my face.

You'll also notice that I completely fell asleep at the wheel with his sweeps. For whatever reason, I wasn't able to react fast enough to those, and ate tons of unnecessary damage as a result. If you have faster reflexes than me, as mentioned, you can either do a jump-in [2] uppercut combo, or jump-out to avoid damage entirely. Or heck, if you're feeling really froggy, you can hit him with an Electric Fly if you're fast enough.

However you beat him, this is the final fight. Destroy Shao Kahn, and you'll own Story Mode. You'll have several tens of thousands of coins to spend, you'll have two new characters unlocked total, and your skills will be pretty sharp to take on the Arcade and Tag Ladders!